Euro area insurance corporation statistics: third quarter of 2021

30 November 2021

• Total assets of euro area insurance corporations amounted to €9,179 billion in third quarter of 2021, €69 billion higher than in second quarter of 2021
• Total insurance technical reserves of euro area insurance corporations rose to €6,908 billion in third quarter of 2021, up €48 billion from second quarter of 2021

Total assets of euro area insurance corporations increased to €9,179 billion in the third quarter of 2021, from €9,110 billion in the second quarter of 2021. Debt securities accounted for 38.4% of the sector's total assets in the third quarter of 2021. The second largest category of holdings was investment fund shares (29.2%), followed by equity (11.6%) and loans (7.1%).

Holdings of debt securities decreased to €3,521 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2021 from €3,542 billion at the end of the previous quarter. Net sales of debt securities amounted to €14 billion in the third quarter of 2021(see Chart 1); price and other changes amounted to -€7 billion. The year-on-year growth rate of debt securities held was -0.2%.

Looking at holdings by issuing sector, the annual growth rate of debt securities issued by euro area general government was -0.4% in the third quarter of 2021, with net sales in the quarter amounting to €16 billion. As regards debt securities issued by the private sector, the annual growth rate was -2.0%, and quarterly net sales amounted to €4 billion. For debt securities issued by non-euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 3.0%, with quarterly net purchases of €6 billion.

Data for insurance corporations' holdings of debt securities by issuing sector

Turning to insurance corporations' holdings of investment fund shares, these increased to €2,684 billion in the third quarter of 2021, from €2,628 billion in the previous quarter, with net purchases of €46 billion and price and other changes of €10 billion (see Chart 2). The year-on-year growth rate in the third quarter of 2021 was 6.5%.

The annual growth rate of euro area money market fund shares held by insurance corporations was - 3.3% in the third quarter of 2021, with net purchases in the quarter amounting to €6 billion. As regards holdings of euro area non-money market fund shares, the annual growth rate was 7.2%, with quarterly net purchases amounting to €40 billion. For investment fund shares issued by non-euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 7.3%, with quarterly net sales close to € 0 billion.

Data for insurance corporations' holdings of investment fund shares by issuing sector

In terms of main liabilities, total insurance technical reserves of insurance corporations amounted to €6,908 billion in the third quarter of 2021, up from €6,860 billion in the second quarter of 2021 (see Annex, Table 1). Life insurance technical reserves accounted for 90.3% of total insurance technical reserves in the third quarter of 2021. Unit-linked products amounted to €1,533 billion, accounting for 24.6% of total life insurance technical reserves.

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Notes:

• "Other assets" includes currency and deposits, insurance technical reserves and related claims, financial derivatives, non-financial assets and remaining assets.
• "Private sector" refers to euro area excluding general government.
• "Investment funds" includes money market funds and non-money market funds.
• Hyperlinks in the main body of the statistical release and in the annex table lead to data that may change with subsequent releases as a result of revisions. Figures shown in the annex table are a snapshot of the data as at the time of the current release.